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Yomiuri Giants
|- !colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background-color: lightyellow"|Major league affiliations |-sizcache="0" sizset="0" !colspan="2" sizcache="0" sizset="0"| *Central League (1936–present) |- !colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background-color: lightyellow"|Current uniform |- |colspan="2" style="text-align: center"| |- !Retired Numbers |''1, 3, 4, 14, 16, 34'' |- !colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background-color: lightyellow"|Colors |-sizcache="0" sizset="1" |colspan="2" sizcache="0" sizset="1"| *'Orange, Black, White' |- !colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background-color: lightyellow"|Name |-sizcache="0" sizset="2" |colspan="2" sizcache="0" sizset="2"| *'Yomiuri Giants (2002–present)' |-sizcache="0" sizset="3" |colspan="2" sizcache="0" sizset="3"| *Tokyo Yomiuri Giants (1947–2002) *Tokyo Giants (1936–1946) *Dai-Nippon Tōkyō Yakyū Club (1934–1935), |- !colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background-color: lightyellow"|Other nicknames |-sizcache="0" sizset="4" |colspan="2" sizcache="0" sizset="4"| *'Kyojin (巨人?, giant)' |- !colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background-color: lightyellow"|Ballpark |-sizcache="0" sizset="5" |colspan="2" sizcache="0" sizset="5"| *'Tokyo Dome (1988–present)' *Korakuen Stadium (1949-1987) |- !colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background-color: lightyellow"|League titles |-style="vertical-align: top" |'Japan Series titles' (21) |width="135"|1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1981, 1989, 1994, 2000, 2002, 2009 |-style="vertical-align: top" |'CL Pennants' (33) |width="135"|1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1965, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1983, 1987, 1989, 1990, 1994, 1996, 2000, 2002, 2007, 2008, 2009 |-style="vertical-align: top" |'Japanese Baseball League titles' (9) |width="135"|Fall 1936, Spring 1937, Fall 1938, 1939, 1940, 1941, 1942, 1943, 1949 |- |colspan="2"| |- !colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background-color: lightyellow"|Owner(s): Yomiuri Group |- !colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background-color: lightyellow"|Manager: |- !colspan="2" style="text-align: center; background-color: lightyellow"|General Manager: |} The Yomiuri Giants are a professional baseball team based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. The team competes in the Central League of Japan's top-tier major league, Nippon Professional Baseball, and they play their home games in the Tokyo Dome, opened in 1988. The team is sometimes called the "Tokyo Giants" in the English-language press, but like the Hanshin Tigers and Orix Buffaloes, the team is officially known by the name of its corporate owner. The team's owner is the Yomiuri Group, a media conglomerate which includes two newspapers and a television network. The Yomiuri Giants are regarded as "The New York Yankees of Japan" due to their wide-spread popularity, past dominance of the league, and polarizing effect on fans (baseball fans who feel ambivalent about other than their local team often have an intense dislike for the Giants; on the other hand, the Giants have a large fan base even in areas with a local team). The Giants are the oldest team among the current Japanese professional teams. Lefty O'Doul, a former Major League Baseball player, named the team "Tokyo Giants". Yomiuri Giants name and uniforms were based on the New York (now San Francisco) Giants. The teams colors (orange and black) are the same colors worn by the National League's Giants, both in New York and San Francisco. The stylized lettering on the team's jerseys and caps is similar to the fancy lettering used by the Giants when they played in New York in the 1930s, although during the 1970s the Giants modernized their lettering to follow the style worn by the American Giants. The Giants' main rivalry is with the Hanshin Tigers, a team especially popular in the Kansai region. The Giants are also unsurprisingly the richest club in the league after winning the championship continuously for the past years. They won nine Japanese Baseball League titles before the establishment of the two league system in 1950. Starting in 1965, the Giants won nine consecutive Central League pennants and Japan Series titles, in large part because of the hitting of Shigeo Nagashima and Sadaharu Oh. The Yomiuri Giants have won more pennants and Japan Series titles than any other team in the NPB. In 2008 season, they also managed to achieve a biggest comeback victory in Central League history, by recovering a 13-game defecit to Hanshin Tigers to the place of Central League Champion. The team is often referred by fans and in news headlines and tables simply as Kyojin (巨人), Japanese for "Giants", instead of the usual corporate owner's name or the English nickname.